Oakland County law enforcement pleased with pot ruling

Opinions run the gamut around Oakland County on Friday’s Michigan Supreme Court ruling on medical marijuana sales.

In a 4-1 decision, the state’s highest court affirmed an Appeals Court finding that Michigan’s 2008 medical marijuana law does not allow people to sell pot to each other, even if they’re among the tens of thousands who have state-issued marijuana cards.

“The Court of Appeals reached the correct conclusion that defendants are not entitled to operate a business that facilitates patient-to-patient sales of marijuana,” the court’s majority wrote.

The state’s marijuana law makes no mention of dispensaries, nor does it indicate how people should get the drug. It says people can possess up to 2.5 ounces of “usable” marijuana and keep up to 12 plants in a locked place. A caregiver also can provide marijuana.

A Detroit attorney, who specializes in medical marijuana law, said now the issue of dispensaries has been settled, it is time for Michigan lawmakers to weigh in.

“This is the end of the road. This is it,” said Abel, whose firm is known as Cannabis Counsel PLC. “It will be a mess until the Legislature clarifies what kinds of business entities are allowed to exist.”

Waterford Police Chief Daniel McCaw said he was glad to learn of the decision.

“This validates what we in law enforcement community have been saying all along,” McCaw said.

In August, 2010, a drug task force conducted raids at Waterford-based Everybody’s Cafe and a separate dispensary location on Williams Lake Road. Several people were arrested and their cases played out in Oakland County courts in the next few years.

“People on occasion contact me and want to open a dispensary or distribution center,” said McCaw, “but we explain it’s in violation of the law.”

Southfield-based attorney Neil Rockind, defense attorney in several recent medical marijuana cases, said people in the medical marijuana community are panicking unnecessarily about the ruling.

“The opinion was very limited. The court is saying a patient transferring to another patient is not entitled to immunity,” he said. “They still may come into court. But (if arrested), they can’t hold up their medical marijuana card and say, ‘You can’t arrest me.’ It was very limited as to what kind of transfers are entitled to immunities.”

The Supreme Court said Compassionate Apothecary in Mount Pleasant can be shut down as a “public nuisance.”

The business’ owners had claimed they weren’t doing anything illegal because the law allowed for the “delivery” and “transfer” of marijuana. The business allowed its members to sell marijuana to each other, with the owners taking as much as a 20 percent cut.

Messages seeking comment were left with a spokeswoman for Attorney General Bill Schuette and another with Isabella County Prosecutor Rita Scully, who has said the state’s medical marijuana statute does not allow for dispensaries.

The attorney general called last year’s Appeals Court decision “a huge victory for public safety.”

The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice Robert Young, who was joined by Justices Stephen Markman, Mary Beth Kelly and Brian Zahra.

Justice Michael Cavanagh dissented, and Justice Bridget McCormack, who won election in November, did not take part in the case.